“Jin, it’s all arranged,” Julieta informed him over dinner the next night. “You will be given a tour of the factory and the corporate office building on January eighteenth.”
“Perfect. Who’s leading the tour?”
“Mr. Gonzalez himself.”
“Again, perfect. Can I have his phone number?”
She eyed him curiously. “Why?”
“Because I want to ask if you can come along.”
“What?!”
“We’ll offer to fly you in our chartered plane. We’ve been working closely with you and would like you to be there with us. Also, you had mentioned you were homesick when you discovered we were visiting Buenos Aires.”
“What? I did no such thing!”
“Mr. Gonzalez doesn’t need to know that, though. He can believe it’s true. It’s my rationalization for why we want you there.”
“Can I bring Tia along too? She’ll be upset if I go home without her.”
“I figured as much. My management team said we can all go.”
“So you want to personally call Mr. Gonzalez and ask him if he is sending me with you?”
“Yep. Exactly.”
She inhaled sharply before blowing out a long breath. “Okay, Jin. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, I guess.” Then she proceeded to give him the man’s phone number.
A few minutes later, Jin had the whole scheme set up. Julieta just shook her head.
“Jin, you were amazing! It’s a little scary how well you can work people.”
“No, no. I’m just always as genuine as I can be. For a moment, I pretended he really is like an uncle to you. Then I acted out of that feeling.”
“You sure did.” She recalled his end of the conversation.
“Hello, Mr. Gonzalez? …Yes, I am so happy to be speaking with you…Miss Flores has spoken of you in the most glowing terms. It is clear that the two of you are very close…BTS has really enjoyed working with Miss Flores. And she has spoken of how much she misses her homeland…We love working with her and would enjoy having her with us when we tour your facility.
“Would it be all right if we offer her a ride on our airplane when we head your way? We’d like her to tour the facility with us. Her viewpoint is always unique and interesting. We’d really enjoy her company on this trip. And we’d like to be able to reunite the two of you. You must miss her as much as she misses you.”
Wow. That was a loaded statement!
It appeared that BTS weren’t the only ones going to Buenos Aires in less than two weeks. Julieta and Tia were both headed home again.
